I love to research, and to write. And chatting with long distance friends is one of my greatest inspirations.

For instance, take my debut novel FORCED MATE (it is a chess term... all my titles are chess titles... and it seemed a perfect play on words for a cosmic love-triangle/alien abduction romance) .

At the conclusion of FORCED MATE, the guy who lost the girl is left with a smashed jaw and a broken thigh, and my editor wanted a sequel. I started some exploratory chatting about broken jaws.

"Oh, a broken jaw is terrible. You cannot possibly have a hero with a broken JAW," my helpful correspondents told me. They went on to share all the romantic things that a guy with a broken jaw can NOT do, and all the unromantic, unattractive, and painful things he'd have to endure.

Fabulous! I love a literary challenge. They gave me a lot I could use, and the military guy who broke his jaw twice (!!!!) really gave my hero something valid to worry about, and a reason to be nervous of the heroine.

Anyway, the broken jaw was set in stone... to mix metaphors.

Next, my friends on the FFandP loop discussed wild issues such as body odor on a deserted island, and what to do about it. Also, various ways of depiliation (shaving). My own research on a beach with a broken shell told me that a so-called "razor" shell simply does not work.

Yes! I take great pride in my research, and will go as far as is legal and safe to make sure I get my fact right. Sharp shells will take off your skin, but they won't do much for your armpit or leg hair. Now, obsessive daily rubbing with a pumice-like stone will discourage hair regrowth, but all in all, it's better to genetically modify your alien heroines so they don't have underarm hair.

The book that came of it -- and other irresistible challenges, such as "Oh, you CANNOT write a romance set on a deserted island. After two chapters, it will be soooo boring!" -- is INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL, in bookstores now.

Rowena's youth was spent on the tiny British island of Guernsey: a mystical, idyllic setting with its prehistoric earth-goddess, historic Martello towers, underground gun emplacements, and legends of faery men emerging from a cleft in the Hommet Headland to mate with human women.

A school chess champion and winner of the Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Award, Rowena went to ancient Cambridge University for her four-year combined honors degree in English and Education, after which she taught at exclusive boarding schools, first in Dorset, then in London.

Eventually Rowena met and married her auto designer husband, who whirled her off to Germany to live the glamorous life of an alien abroad.

Reassigned to America, she rode in pace cars at the Indy 500 and Brickyard and has flown in corporate jets to exotic locations. Her life so far has been fantastic inspiration for romance novel scenes and alien-world building.

Rowena lives in Michigan with her husband and daughter.

If you'd like to send a note to Rowena, please use the contact page, or send correspondance to: